Disclaimer: We are not attorneys and don’t pretend to be. The information presented here relies primarily on information available through public records. We are not responsible for documentation from government entities and other public sources which may be incomplete and/or inaccurate.

The now-former Chairman of the Vermilion County Regional Airport Authority (“VCRAA”), Dave Kietzmann, submitted his resignation from the VCRAA board last Friday, effective immediately.

The Illinois Department of Transportation’s Office of Chief Counsel sent a letter to the VCRAA on November 7, 2018, stating that it appeared Kietzmann may be disqualified from serving as an Airport Authority Commissioner because he was also employed by Danville Area Community College, and by holding a position of employment with the DACC, Kietzmann “is an employee of a unit of local government.”

Section 5 of the Airport Authorities Act was cited as the disqualifying Section (see our previous articles here) by IDOT, which states:

Sec. 5. Qualifications of commissioners and removal from office. No person shall be appointed to the Board of Commissioners of any Airport Authority who has any financial interest in the establishment or continued existence thereof or who is a member of the governing body or an officer or employee of a municipality, a county, or any other unit of local government, or an elected official of State or federal government, except when the authority is wholly located within a single county with a population of less than 40,000, an individual employed by a local school district may serve as a commissioner. Should it appear to the Department of Transportation that any member of the Board of Commissioners of an airport authority may be disqualified, or guilty of misconduct or malfeasance in office or unwilling or unable to act, it shall notify the Board of Commissioners of that fact in writing and it shall then be the duty of the Board of Commissioners to require such board member to show cause why he should not be removed from office. Any such person shall be given a hearing by the Board of Commissioners and, after such hearing, if the Board of Commissioners finds such a charge should be sustained, it shall remove the person so charged from office, and a vacancy shall thereupon exist for the unexpired term of such office.

We first wrote about this on April 30, 2018, but were met with a brick wall of denial at the VCRAA board meetings. The airport’s attorney did absolutely nothing to guide them in the right and legal direction, which should have seen Kietzmann’s resignation in May, instead of November.

We will post the resignation letter as soon as we receive a copy, the IDOT letter is below: